After six months on hiatus, the podcast is back with Episode 103!
This is a special bonus episode that will pair well with Episode 102. So much has happened since that episode dropped and I will go into all of it here.
Three books have been published which have been the lion's share of where my time has gone. I will go into the process of being published traditionally versus doing it on my own as I have done both this year.
Searching for the Lady of the Dunes is now available and there is a great new website that was built for the book, documentary, and everything about the case. Plus now you can watch the documentary through my YouTube channel. We'll get into how that came about as well.
Plus I got some great advice from an old friend and highly successful podcaster. That coupled with some much-needed closure surrounding the passing of my Uncle Eric helped lead to this return episode.
There is so much catching up we need to do!
Helpful Links from this Episode
Listen to Episode 102 here.
After six months on hiatus, the podcast is back with Episode 103!
This is a special bonus episode that will pair well with Episode 102. So much has happened since that episode dropped and I will go into all of it here.
Three books have been published which have been the lion's share of where my time has gone. I will go into the process of being published traditionally versus doing it on my own as I have done both this year.
Searching for the Lady of the Dunes is now available and there is a great new website that was built for the book, documentary, and everything about the case. Plus now you can watch the documentary through my YouTube channel. We'll get into how that came about as well.
Plus I got some great advice from an old friend and highly successful podcaster. That coupled with some much-needed closure surrounding the passing of my Uncle Eric helped lead to this return episode.
There is so much catching up we need to do!
Helpful Links from this Episode
Listen to Episode 102 here.
Hello world, and welcome to the In My Footsteps Podcast. I am Christopher Setterlund, coming to you from the vacation destination known as Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
Hold up. Well, we couldn't just start this latest episode, episode 103, and pretend like I've been here all along. We know that’s not true. To be honest, I wasn't sure how to actually start this episode because when I began the podcast in November of 2020, I was all in it, all about it, with researching, recording, editing, and marketing for well over two years, 102 episodes.
But for those of you that have listened from the beginning, you know that I've been on kind of a break, a hiatus that stretched into six months. For those of you that this may be your first time listening to me, welcome in. You can go and catch up on all of the episodes wherever you get your podcasts, Apple, Spotify, Pandora. There's a ton that I've covered, and there's a ton more that I'm going to cover. New England and Cape Cod-based travel and history, some fun 80s and 90s nostalgia, lifestyle topics, things from my own life, some self-deprecating humor that hopefully you've enjoyed things I've shared that I never thought I would.
This is in my footsteps a Cape Cod and New England podcast. This is the return episode 103, subtitled Where I've Been. It's not a season premiere really, it's not a reset, but I told you at the end of episode 102 that I would be back. I know some of you thought I never would, but I had said later in the summer, and here it is later in the summer, and I am here.
But why did I take this six-month break?
The short answer is I had a lot on my plate, and I still do, but I finally have some room to put the podcast back in, and I definitely missed it. I missed having this voice, I missed the interaction with the people who listen, and the chance to make new connections along the way.
Plus selfishly, I have a lot to share and promote, and a podcast is the best way to do it.
Social media posts that are just words sometimes things get lost in translation. When you hear my voice, you know 100% what I'm talking about. So to all of you who asked about the podcast who are waiting for this episode to drop, thank you so much for sticking with me. I hope that this kind of second act is all you've hoped it would be.
I've got a lot to bring up. So this would be kind of a bonus episode, not a full-length one, because as many things as I've got to share about why I took my six-month sabbatical, it's definitely not enough that I could do a full episode on it. It would get quite boring.
Some of you who know me in real life are following me through social media.
Some of this would be familiar to you, but I never want to assume that you all know what I've had to deal with.
So let's jump into where I've been.
First and foremost, if you've listened to this podcast in any of the last 30 episodes or so, you know that I was working on a true crime book Searching For the Lady of the Dunes based around the infamous murder case on Cape Cod, and connected deeply with the documentary produced by Frank Durant.
As we got deeper into the winter, I was in kind of a rush to get this book done. I wanted to see it in print and have copies of it to be able to hand people or e-books the people could order.
So as much as I wanted it to be traditionally published, and I did, I sent out dozens of query letters to literary agents. So the fastest way was to edit it myself, get everything set, the best I could, and self-publish it.
And that's what happened at the end of February, Searching For the Lady of the Dunes became available. I used a great company called IngramSpark. There's the biggest self-publisher wholesale that there is. I had to do lots of research as far as the size of the book and the quality of the paper, the sizes and specifics of the fonts, all this boring minutia that if you don't do books or writing, you wouldn't even want to hear about it.
The writing, editing, and then self-publishing of the book was just the beginning though, because now I've got this book and what do I do with it? How do I let people know about it?
The way I did that was twofold, two big things. First, I created my own website, for the book and for the case, The Lady of the Dunes.com. I'll put a link in the description of the podcast if you want to go check it out. If you've seen me on social media, I've shared the hell out of it. It's got links to buy the book, links to buy the documentary and other podcasts and interviews that I've done about the Lady of the Dunes case.
Some of the friends of the project and pertinent newspaper articles that had to deal with the case through the years. It's a lot of information and I hope some of you will go check it out.
The other big part was publishing the Lady of the Dunes documentary on my YouTube channel. How this came about was Frank Durant, he's been waiting for one of his crew to get the documentary up on YouTube. They dragged their feet for months and months. And we finally came to this kind of compromise. I said I'd love to put it up on my YouTube channel and get eyes on it. He agreed to that on two conditions. One was I could not monetize it, which you need a certain amount of subscribers to do that anyway. I wasn't at that point, but I promised him that and I have not. And the other was turning off comments on the documentary because as great as the majority of the people that have worked on the documentary and helped with the documentary and the book have been, there are still some that, how can I say this diplomatically? Either didn't like the documentary or wanted to be a bigger part of it and have now become more of a hindrance than a help to the promotion of the documentary.
So it's now there. I'll put a link to this in my description of the podcast as well.
If you want to go and watch the documentary, you can free on my YouTube channel.
All the stuff I've been talking about for months about the documentary, you can go watch it right now. When it comes to Searching for the Lady of the Dunes, my book, I'm still looking for a publisher because it's great as it is to have physical copies of the book that I published, however honestly it doesn't carry the cache of having a real publisher behind it.
And that goes into another reason for my lengthy hiatus from the podcast and that is the two other books, traditionally published books, that are now out or coming out.
At the end of March, I had Cape Cod: Beyond the Dunes, which is a photography book through Fonthill Media, which is an offshoot of Arcadia Publishing.
And coming likely next month, so August is In My Footsteps at Cape Cod Travel Guide, the second edition that I've been working on forever. That's really been delayed.
So with trying to get Searching For the Lady of the Dunes published traditionally, and also trying to market it, market the two new books, and set up book events. Even with having traditional publishers putting out two books their marketing department can only do so much and I'm way more hands-on, so setting up events can take a lot of time.
I'm going to have some events set up through August, and September. I'll share them more as we get closer to the dates so that if any of you want to come out and see me in person when I do these book events because these are the first I've gone in person since before COVID.
So in all the time that I had this podcast, I'd never had book events to promote. I've been working really hard over the last six months and a lot longer than that on these three books at various stages of their completion and people who know me in real life know that I'm extremely stubborn, which can be a blessing and a curse depending on where it's used in life. When it comes to my career in writing, I'd consider it more of a blessing because I won't give up.
Searching for the Lady of the Dunes is my proudest accomplishment in writing because it's a story that goes beyond the borders of where I live and can appeal to a larger mass audience. True crime might be coming a little bit off the boil, but it's still hot. So for me to have a book that is centered around what was a 50-year-old cold case where the victim was finally identified, that's a huge deal.
But as blessed as I was to be chosen by Frank to do this book and as much of my heart and soul as I put into doing this book and doing it to the best of my abilities, this book is still my most snake bitten and my most rejected project, which is it's a real double edged sword.
The book is totally based on Frank and his experiences and it's from his perspective, which is how I wrote it. So his input was 99% of what I use for this book. But when you do a book that involves other real people, you get a lot of chefs that want to be a part of making the recipe. I did my best to paint everybody in a positive light because they are.
Everybody who helped Frank with this documentary and therefore the book I think are great, but sometimes that's not good enough. So I've had to do several rewrites to the book, blurring the lines of reality and fiction while doing my best to still keep that true crime through line in the story.
I've been rejected by a bunch of agents already and it gets disheartening when you put your heart and soul into something and you know it's good and you're just hoping someone else sees that.
But that stubbornness doesn't just extend to searching for the Lady of the Dunes it goes back 15 years. I've been writing books, e-books, self-published through Amazon's Kindle Store when e-books weren't even really a thing. I started a blog way back in 2008, written articles for myself and for other publications. I've made hundreds of YouTube videos, and I've done this podcast, all in the hopes of breaking through trying to build a portfolio that makes me in my work undeniable.
Everybody's got something that they are good at. Some people don't realize it and they go their whole life and never fulfill that potential. Other people know they're good at something but it comes down to someone else validating your potential, which is a shame when you put your worth in the hands of someone else who doesn't know you.
And I'm not singling out agents and publishers, they get hundreds and thousands of queries from people just looking to get published. I'm not saying I'm better than any of those that got rejected.
I've mentioned a lot over my six-month hiatus on social media and to close friends and family that there have been plenty of times, especially over the last six months to a year, that I felt like quitting, just giving up on my writing, the content creation, and just settling into whatever mundane sort of everyday real life job that is there and just pulling down the sails and letting life carry me wherever it's going to carry me.
There are probably times that I should have done that over these past 15 years, I've passed up on a lot of real-life events times that friends wanted to go and do things.
And I said, no, I'm working on a project, whatever it was, a book, an article, a video, I sacrificed lots of time, and now in my 40s those times are fewer and further between.
I believe pretty much across the board, any project that I do that, oh, this could be the one that breaks me through and you have to have that kind of blind devotion. If you're half-assing some project and expecting to get some kind of major windfall, you're not going to get it.
As I said, I'm too stubborn to give up to quit because right now, if I quit all of this, then what were all these sacrifices for that I did over the last 15 years? Why did I give up on seeing friends and doing things and going off places? There has to be a reason, right? Those of you who have put in the hustle towards something that you love for so long, you know what I mean as far as sacrifices go. I'm sure as time goes, there'll be other points in life where I'll feel like quitting again, maybe at those times I'll actually listen.
There is no set time, there is no hard out on me to give up on my dreams and there shouldn't be for anyone because if you stop chasing your dreams what the hell are you doing with life? There's plenty of time to get beaten down by life. There's only so long you can chase dreams.
A big part of the reason why I started the podcast back up again now has to do with some advice I got. Those of you who are true crime buffs or big true crime podcast listeners or those of you that grew up on Cape Cod maybe, you may have heard of a podcast called True Crime Obsessed or one of its cohosts Patrick Hinds.
We went to school together, and graduated high school, the same year. We didn't really hang out so much but we ran with kind of parallel crowds with some crossover but I don't give too much of his backstory because he actually has a book, his autobiography coming out in September.
He's off doing a one-man show, he's also doing the obsessed best for the podcast. He's a big deal and I bring that up because he didn't become a big deal overnight. He didn't snap his fingers and suddenly become a celebrity that's got his own Wikipedia page which is the definition of success.
He bet on himself and you know how long his sacrifices were? 15 years. He spent all those years working mundane day jobs, much like I've done with his side hustle, being his true passion and hoping and hoping that there was a breakthrough.
A few weeks ago I was lucky enough that he put aside some time to chat with me because he is slammed busy. If you know his life, he's super busy with all of his projects and having a family but there are a few big things I took out of our conversation.
One was the fact that it was 15 years it took him to break through. True Crime Obsessed. He's been doing it I thought he said about seven years now but that didn't happen overnight. He finally said to himself he had to know if he could make it.
Almost like before giving up you've got to finally do that all in full push so that as you get older there's no regret. You know you gave it your best shot and if you saw flat on your face you do but he made it.
Another big thing that came out of my talks with him and meeting up with him when he came and did a one-man show on Cape Cod back in May was that even though he's on a successful book tour and I hugely successful podcast with more than 200 million downloads and he lives in Manhattan and he's touring the country despite that he's still himself. He's still the same person which is hugely important because that means he succeeded without having to change who he was.
It's the old joke about selling your soul to the devil for some kind of talent like the famous story of blues musician Robert Johnson and the Crossroads and selling your soul to the devil for the ability to play guitar. I would rather try and fail as myself than succeed as someone else not being true to who I am and after time he succeeded as himself but it was a long world with struggles just like mine. After speaking with him I knew it was time to bring the podcast back and like I said I've cleared some space I don't have any new books that I'm writing.
I went from having three I was working on to zero so there's a lot more time to do the podcast and this is something I really enjoy. I've said it a million times it's a passion project if I get 20 listeners great if I get 20 million great but I've done this as myself. All subjects I like talking about which means that all of you that listen like the same topics which is just it's great to cultivate that. I might end up creating some kind of Facebook group for people to chat in I don't know how successful that would be but Patrick brought that up and I know he'll probably never listen to this because he's way too busy but I just want to say I thank him in person but I want to thank Patrick Hinds for giving me these great words of advice and how much I appreciate him taking time out of his busy life to talk to me. Yeah, we go back and we went to school together and he's just a super lovely sweet human being but he didn't have to take time out to talk to me about my struggles with my career and he did and that gives me confidence like I'm worth the time which means my work is worth the time and that means a lot.
I wanted to save this to the end but those of you that listened to episode 102 know all about the death of my uncle Eric and as far as the podcast went it was kind of symbolic as I was starting to get burned out and overwhelmed losing my uncle Eric and really having no chance to say goodbye not even knowing he passed until the day after it sapped my desire for everything.
I was lost for a few months. Yeah, I worked on Searching for the Lady of the Dunes but I was kind of on autopilot just wanting to do my day job and kind of hide from the world and process what was going on. Take a step back and look at myself and my life and my priorities and then probably six weeks ago we had a celebration of life for my uncle Eric.
It was the first big family gathering on the backside of the family that we've had in years probably since my uncle Eric and Emma used to have them at their house before they moved back to Las Vegas. Getting to see my aunt Emma and my cousin Patrick after so long and talk with them and talk about how much my uncle Eric meant to me. He was a second father, a father figure, a man that I wish was my own father. In his last conversation with me he was so excited about me doing the Lady of the Dunes book and that was a big reason why I was pushing to get the book done was so I could self-publish it, print a copy and send it to him and I didn't make it in time but I was able to give the copy that was earmarked from my uncle Eric to my aunt Emma and my cousin Patrick.
It was important and it was cathartic to see them and it was even better that they came to the book launch event for all my Cape Card photography book that was at Titcomb's Bookshop in Sandwich. It was a great event outside like knocking off the rust because I hadn't done an in-person event and so on and they were there to support me.
There were so many other people there, other family like my aunt Kelly and uncle Keith my cousin Donna my aunt Amy my work peeps like Heather and Maggie, and obviously my buddy Steve who the book is dedicated to. I don't have any photography skills and any I do came from the help of Steve that's why we did the dedication of the craft interview way back.
We circle this all back around talking with my aunt and my cousin and the advice from Patrick Hinds and the belief that so many of you that have reached out about the podcast all those things combined that's why this show is back. That's where I am. That's where episode 103 is kind of wrapping up soon. I will say that the excitement and anticipation every time I release a new podcast it's like one of the books gets released.
I can't wait to see how it does see how many people listen see how many people find me and interact with me on social media and I can't wait to hear from you after this after episode 103. But as far as the future goes I'm not saying there are any imminent changes to the podcast but I am starting to see what segments people enjoy more than others. There are certain segments that are harder to do more work and more research and I don't ever want this to be a job per se where I think of it like when I used to work in restaurants and I would dread going in on a rainy summer day because I knew it was going to be awful.
As far as tweaks to the podcast go I may put out polls and such to see what people like.
That might come on the Facebook page. We'll see if I create that. If there's feedback clamoring for it then maybe I will.
Coming up next week though is going to be episode 104, a full-length episode back to the old format at least for now. I'm going to go back 10 years and talk about this time when I had a talk show on a college radio station. This may be one of the funniest stories and I can't wait to share it. We're going to take a road trip as far north in New England as we can go to the town of Madawaska Maine. We're going to go way, way back in the day, and look at the creation of the beanie babies 30 years ago and the fad that came from it. We're going to talk about a bad investment. There'll be a brand new top five that are the top five creature feature films. A lot of boys my age, a little older, little younger, you'll remember watching these on Saturday mornings or afternoons. And there'll be a brand new this week in history and time capsule coming up next week on episode 104 of in my footsteps at Cape Cod in New England podcast.
As for me, you can find me all over social media, Instagram, and Twitter, while that still exists. My YouTube channel, go watch The Lady of the Dunes documentary. If you want to support the podcast, you can buy me a coffee. There's a link in the description of the podcast. Any donations, go to advertising the podcast. Go to my homepage, Christopher Setterlund.com. My website has got everything you could need to know about me and my work. It was created 15 years ago by my oldest friend, Barry Menard, who still updates it and I may be hitting him up for some more updates soon because his skill as a graphic designer is kind of unparalleled. I wish I had his skills. And find any of my new books, the three new books on Amazon, Cape Cod Beyond the Dunes, in my footsteps a Cape Cod Travel Guide, the second edition, and Searching for The Lady of the Dunes.
Even though it's self-published through me, it's on Amazon. You can go find it.
Thank you all so much for tuning in. For all of you that have listened throughout, I hope you enjoyed this kind of new chapter. For those of you who have come aboard in the time during the hiatus, welcome in. It's going to be a lot of fun.
And remember, in this life, don't walk in anyone else's footsteps, create your own path. Whatever you do, do it as you. Stay true to yourself. And enjoy every moment because you never know when the next sunset is the last sunset. I'll be back next week. Thank you all for tuning in. This has been the In My Footsteps Podcast. I am Christopher Setterlund, and I will talk to you all again soon.